


Examples to Follow

by izumi2



Series: Yinsen Academy (Civil War Team Iron Man) [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anti-Natasha/Bruce, Anti-Wanda/Vision, Civil War Team Iron Man, F/M, Gen, Moderated because of trolls, Not Natasha Friendly, Social political issues, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 09:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15312630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izumi2/pseuds/izumi2
Summary: An outsider's view on the Avengers' impact on social and political movements.Concerns are brought about acceptable behaviors to follow.~*~Inspired by,“...Steve wasn’t going to back down so they had to, leaves a sour taste for reasons that probably weren’t intended by the script-writers. A 5’3” woman saying she had to back down, not because she was wrong, but because a 6’0” guy wasn’t going to?...", By Kizmet.And the dozens of comments that classify Vision resuming a relationship with Scarlet Witch as toxic.~*~#Civil War Team Iron Man





	Examples to Follow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kizmet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/gifts), [ColtsAllie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColtsAllie/gifts).



Meetings like this became the norm if they ever wanted to stabilize the Avengers. Rules, regulations and contracts were common.

“As our last topic of today, it is a little uncomfortable but... is it of my understanding that Victor Shade and Wanda Maximoff are in a romantic relationship?”

That silenced everyone in the room. Tony and his friends grimaced a little, more than used to have their private relationship questioned when it could interfere with professional settings while the other half was indignant.

“I’m sorry… what does our personal relationships have to do with this?” Steve sent a reassuring look to an embarrassed Wanda while Vision merely looked at Trevor, the Navy SEAL graduated as a PR and since he was used to work with Enhanced, he was chosen to deal with the Avengers much to Tony’s and Rhodey’s many sympathetic glances.

“Forgive me, Mr. Rogers, but it is my job to prepare you and prepare speaking points in the inevitable case you are asked uncomfortable questions. You were… abroad when it happened, but Colonel Rhodes and Captain Danvers were also prepared when they started their relationship. The most common one, and it will be asked dozens of times by dozens of different people, is: “Do you think your relationship will compromise you?” and variations like “Do you think you can work with someone you are dating?” and so on, the way you answer that question not only will have to be as honest as we can make it but also as point that your professionalism won’t suffer because of your personal connection, not to make the Avengers look “good” but to make us look trustworthy, after all…why trust someone whose mind is somewhere else? Does everybody understand?” and he made a point to meet everybody’s eyes and only continued when even Wanda nodded.

Trevor met Wanda’s and Vision’s eyes, when no word was forthcoming from Wanda, Vision turned fully to the retired SEAL, “We used to be in a romantic relationship. And it was terminated after Thanos’ invasion and our subsequent…return due to…our differences in personality.”

“Ok, no reason or explanations beyond that are necessary. The way you said it is almost perfect, just, uh, “We used to be in a romantic relationship but after Thanos’ invasion, we decided to be just friends.” Saying “differences in personality” is just inviting people to ask “what differences?” they will ask anyway but “deciding to be just friends” has more wiggle room.” Trevor smiled a little at Vision’s nod but the smile disappeared at the synthezoid’s nest question.

“In Captain Marvel and War Machine’s relationship, the public was given more details. Surely, if it they are to trust us, our trust is also warranted?”

Oh, shit.

“Since we are all in agreement of what to speak to the public, I can talk details with just Mr. Shade and Ms. Maximoff.” Trevor was pretty proud of himself for his lack of reaction.

Rhodey and Carol were halfway out of their seat with a distracted Tony already typing like crazy on his phone, Hope was collecting her papers when Rogers pronounced himself, “No, we would like to be here. For moral support if anything.”

Trevor bit back a sigh and did his job, “Are you both consenting to this?” he looked at Wanda and Vision.

Vision waited for Wanda’s nod and then nodded as well.

Tony looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, his hand frozen still holding his phone, sentiment shared by his friends that also slowly sat back down.

“Giving the…all the revelations about dynamics between…some of the Avengers, it would be better if we are minimal with details.”

“Why? What does it matter anyway?” Wanda asked a little quietly.

“Well, I am assuming that both you and Mr. Shade did resume a romantic relationship between the end of Thanos’ war and today?”

“And it didn’t work so why would people dwell on that?” Steve leaned forward.

“People will “dwell” on the strangest of details, Mr. Rogers. An Avenger dating is already gossip worth, two Avengers dating one another are guaranteed spotlight for at least a year until something else catches the media’s attention.”

Steve nodded, remembering all too well that his kiss with Sharon wasn’t received very warmly. Then again, after talking about it to his therapist, although none of the public’s business who he decides to have a romantic relationship with, Steve agreed that if things were different, Peggy Carter used to be the love of his life and kissing her niece just after her funeral wasn’t…very polite to say the least.

“Back to the subject,” Trevor cleared his throat, “As “transparency” is the Avengers’ new motto so people will trust us, it’s still not a good idea to reveal that Vision and Scarlet Witch pursued a romantic relationship between the Avengers dissolution and Thanos’ invasion. So, for the sake of not creating a public outcry, the rest of the team that personally knew of it will only comment that “They decided they worked better as friends and this is honestly none of our business.” While Mr. Shade and Ms. Maximoff will only state the same and, if pressed, that they tried something but by the time of Thanos’ invasion, they have already ended it. True enough without the specific that you resumed your relationship between Leipzig and Thanos.”

“Why does the timeline matter this much?” Sam Wilson pronounced himself for the first time in the topic, clearly confused.

Now Trevor couldn’t hide the fact that he was uncomfortable and tried just once more, “I can still discuss the details with only Ms. Maximoff and Mr. Shade if they so wish.”

““Transparency”, right?” Wanda was clearly beginning to lose patient and wasn’t that just wonderful for what Trevor has to say next?

With a last look towards Vision who only nodded, Trevor sighed, “Once the team was stable enough,” meaning once all the alphabetical long list of crimes were cleared, “other issues were raised. “Heroes” are taken as examples to follow. Not only to adults but especially for children as well, they emulate and take as… normal, what the Avengers do. Meaning that, at least publically, we need to show poster, textbook health in all fronts, mental, physical, socially, and so on.”

“What does that have to do with Vision and Wanda?” Natasha leaned forward as Bruce leaned away which didn’t escape Trevor’s gaze.

“The whole world is aware of the means which Mr. Barton and Ms. Maximoff came to Germany, **_through_** Mr. Shade, one of the hot topics once things calmed down is the… unhealthy connections the Avengers have with one another. Dr. Stark and Mr. Rogers were heavily discussed but they weren’t the only subject of scrutiny.” Said men reacted differently, Stark narrowed his eyes and Rogers winced back. “Vision and Scarlet Witch’s romantic relationship was also very talked about and not in a positive light.”

“How so?” Vision frowned a little.

“The post from a mother of two teenagers is still trending.” Trevor turned on the screen behind to show the post, “In it, she raises some good arguments that, after consulting with several mental care physicians, I can’t deny its accuracy.”

Trevor waited and watched the reactions. Romanova took a deep breath and didn’t react in any way but it was only when Maximoff went from looking murderous to lost and pale that the retired SEAL continued.

“Since the Avengers first appeared in 2012, Natalia Romanova was often seen as a symbol of feminism, a woman able to keep up and earn her place amongst Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. That took a hit after the events in Leipzig, the public didn’t see that as Ms. Romanova being loyal, being able to compartmentalize due to a threat or even seeing both sides of the argument.

 First of all, Ms. Romanova had no idea that Mr. Rogers was trying to solve a threat brought to his attention, a threat that proved itself false and that one had no way of properly assessing without trusting Sargent Barnes’ severely compromised word for it. Not only Ms. Romanova refused to stay and accept whatever consequences breaking her legal signature of the Accords would warrant but the only comment or explanation given was, and I quote, “He wasn’t going to stop”. Ms. Romanova didn’t say anything about a possible threat, about Mr. Rogers and Sargent Barnes convincing her of anything. Just, “He wasn’t going to stop.”

That…divided the public pretty violently. Ms. Romanova decided to let them go, not because she trusted them or because she was made aware of the other Winter Soldiers or because she didn’t want to fight her friends – after already fighting with them anyways – that wasn’t the argument used, Ms. Romanova said, “He wasn’t going to stop.” That gave weight to the argument that the famous Black Widow backed down because of **_fear of being taken down_**. As far as the…sounder arguments go, some say that Ms. Romanova was quite right for not putting herself in the danger of not only facing a 6’0 feet tall man much bigger than herself but an Enhanced one at that while Ms. Romanova is a Baseline, 5’3 feet tall woman…on the other side, the other half arguments that, if that was the case, then Ms. Romanova doesn’t deserve to be one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes since her whole explanation was that she was unwilling to battle overwhelming odds. And the Avengers often face overwhelming odds…”

James Rhodes, very severely but still calm, asked then, “What does the Black Widow’s actions affect the issue at hand with the Scarlet Witch?”

But Trevor didn’t need to say anything because Carol Danvers chose to answer, “Feminism.”

Rogers frowned, “What?”

Captain Marvel turned to him, “The public is worried that the Avengers’ actions will negatively impact the fight for gender equality since we, as a group, seem to take it to extremes.”

Hope van Dyne decided to contribute when it was clear that some of them were still confused, “Unfortunately, at some point, gender equality took a different meaning from feminism. Originally, feminism is the social and political movements to promote equal opportunities in all areas for women as men have and thus, resulting in gender equality, meaning equal rights regardless of gender. Sure, issues of gender classification aside, feminism took a very narrow turn in media. Suddenly, feminism took to mean girls and women… females that are superior to males or that act like it. “Ball-busters” so to speak, women that are taken as superior and stronger simply because they defeat a man in whatever area is it. A physical fight, a fight of words, professionally and so on.”

Trevor grimaced and nodded, “As it is, we manage to mitigate a little of it. Perhaps being… cold and aloof was just the way the Black Widow is, there is no denying the horrors you had to face at a very young age, just because it **_looks_** like you are manipulating the men of your team is not necessarily because they are men, perhaps you would act just like that with female teammates as well. We had hoped that the Scarlet Witch would only help, according to Maria Hill, Ms. Romanova truly acts…detachedly regardless of gender, but we just don’t have any interaction on record aside from the brief exchange of words just before the tragedy in Lagos and that’s not a mission we would want to put focus on.

And then Leipzig…Then the footage of the Scarlet Witch’s attack on Vision, provoked or not… the fact that you two resumed a romantic connection after that…after that day, is also something that we can’t reveal.

The Black Widow let Captain America and the Winter Soldier go because she was afraid that they would go through her, she was afraid of a physical confrontation. “Is the Black Widow all bark and no bite?” Scarlet Witch pushes the Vision through dozens of concrete floors and they resume a relationship, if it was the contrary, people would be up in arms talking about a male beating a female up and yet…just because the gender roles were reversed doesn’t mean that it’s a sign of a healthier dynamic. A woman beating up a man is taken as a red flag just as man beating up a woman. And that was the concern raised by that mother. Her two children just entered adolescence, one is male and the other female, she was afraid of the kind of message the Vision accepting Scarlet Witch back as anything more than an occasional teammate could mean for what her kids see as “acceptable”.”

“Because children and teenagers could see that as normal, as something that can be overlooked.” Carol sighed.

Trevor nodded again, feeling tired, “The mother of the girl is worried about the balance needed between standing up for herself and her principles and not backing down just because a male is posturing and putting herself in physical danger by doing so at the same time that the example given is a woman in a very dangerous profession by choice and seems unwilling to dedicate herself to the same extent as a male in her position. The mother of the boy is worried that just because society gives so much attention to toxic dynamics where the male has more social and physical power, the contrary doesn’t exist and it is repugnant and cowardly when a man exerts physical dominance over a female but it is “ok” for a woman to exert dominance over a male. Doesn’t matter the gender, if the point of physical confrontation was reached when there was such a power differential…the conclusion is that it is an unsafe environment. It wasn’t even like the personal fight between Luke Cage and Jessica Jones…Ms. Maximoff knocked Mr. Shade out very violently.”

The former Marine eyed Wanda Maximoff and Natalia Romanova with some sympathy; both women were pale and almost green in suppressed emotion, before turning to the post in the screen.

 _“After watching it…I needed to have a very serious conversation with my son. He is entering the age where girls no longer have cooties…and we talk a lot about how it’s heinous when a male strikes a woman and something that no one should accept or even necessarily forgive, but I also need him to understand that if a girl ever strikes him, ever seriously strikes him, then it’s not something that he should take in stride._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> The last bit about the post was actually a real life friend of mine that watched CW and then IW and actually felt the worry and need to sit with her preteen son to have this conversation, she also has a six year old SON that she is seriously thinking about not letting watch Marvel anymore... 
> 
> I don't even think there is any kind of argument I can give IN FAVOR of watching Marvel in face of her concern, saying that "the fight scenes are really good" is just obscene and saying, "It's just a movie." tends to be a very weak argument after people begun to take Cap's "The UN is corrupt to the point of leashed war dogs" to real life.
> 
> She doesn't have a daughter but I felt that the bit about Romanoff fits here as well.
> 
> I didn't watch Ant Man and the Wasp, but I did update myself on the numerous animated stuff from DC... pff... oh gawd...


End file.
